During the manual dishwashing process, hands of users are exposed to dishwashing detergents. Such compositions comprise surfactants and other ingredients which can damage the skin and/or cause skin irritation and dryness. Some users will therefore feel the need to apply soothing or moisturizing cream in order to restore moisturization, after the dishwashing process.
EPO410567 and WO2008046778 illustrate liquid dishwashing detergent compositions comprising low levels of emollients to give skin care benefit.
However, there remains an unmet need for a shelf stable liquid dishwashing composition, that prevents skin damage and even provides superior moisture maintenance, improved skin feel and skin appearance, while not affecting the cleaning and sudsing performance of said liquid dishwashing composition. Indeed, skin care benefits are often obtained at the expense of effective cleaning and/or sudsing thus making it difficult to formulate a liquid dishwashing composition with such benefits.
The present invention is directed to the delivery of superior skin care to the user's hands, such requiring high levels of emollients. It has been found that a crystalline structurant improves the stability of the liquid dishwashing detergent composition such that higher levels of hydrophobic emollient can be formulated without negatively impacting cleaning.
The hand dishwashing method of the present invention has been found to provide the right equilibrium in providing improvement in skin care and stability of the composition whilst providing superior grease cleaning, shine and suds on dishware. Indeed, the washing of dishes requires the difficult technical combination of tough grease cleaning whilst at the same time delighting the consumer with improved skin care and suds.
A further advantage of this invention is that the skin care benefit can be delivered under all conditions typically found during usage of the liquid dishwashing composition. These conditions vary according to the various different methods of washing dishes used by consumers, i.e. from neat application to dilute conditions. The liquid dishwashing detergent composition of the present invention can be used to deliver improved skin feel and skin appearance in the context of manual dish washing operations, wherein the product undergoes a broad range of concentration levels.